haerold smith



W. H. SMITH. Preserving- Wooden Piles.

Patented July 30, 1867.

N.PETERS. PHOTO LITNOGRAHER WASHINGTON. D, C.

gnitnb ignites gaunt @ffinr.

lV. HARROLD SMITH, OF MEMPHIS. TENNESSEE Letters Patent .No. 67,366, dated July 30, 1867.

IMPROVED METHOD OF PRESERVING WOODEN PILES.

i110 Stimuli march tn in flgcse itetlcrs 33mm mm llIlIltllIQ part at the same.

TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, W. IIARROLD SMITH, of Memphis, in the county of Shelby, and State of Tennessee, have invented a new and improved Method of Preserving Wooden Piles; and I do hereby declare-the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being bad to the accompanying draw ngs, forming part of this specification, and in which.

' The drawing represents a vertical elevation of a pile prepared by my improved process, the front side at the top being broken away so as to exhibit a cross-section of the prepared pile.

This invention consists in enveloping the pile with a hard 7 earthen case, similar in composition and manufacture to common earthen or stone potters ware. The earthen envelope may be glazed on its outer surface, and between it and the wooden pile the space is filled in with sand, concrete, lime, cement, coal tar, gravel, or common earth.

The object of the invention is to preserve piles and timber from decay and from destruction by worms and insects.

In order that others skilledin the art to which my invention appertains may be enab.ed to make and use the same, I will proceed to describe it in detail.

In the drawings, A represents a wooden pile or timber, surrounded, as shown at G, by the case or envelope, above described. This case is prepared in suitable moulds, in which it is cast either in whole tubes or in seetions of a tube, as may be most convenient. It is afterwards thoroughly dried or baked, and the sections are fitted over or around the timber and properly fastened together.

I do not design here to confine myself. to any particular mode of jointing these sections together, but desire to be at liberty to use any practicable method of uniting them, so that too much water cannot insinuate itself between the plates or sections, and so that the worm cannot get in between them. Neither do I desire to limit myself solely to baked earthen or stoneware for making the case C, but may use any..l;ind of artificial earthen or stoneware, or building material, which is prepared in a plastic state and afterwards hardened by any process whatever, so as to be impervious to water, and capable of resisting the attack of worms and insects, or I may use wood or metal, covered with a plastic material on the outside, and formed into a pipe, G, with which to enclose the pile or post, as shown in the drawings.

Having properly glazed the outside of the sections and adjusted the case around the pile or timber, sothat the space 13 between it and the timber shall be uniform and symmetrical, I fill this space with common earth, gravel, sand, concrete, lime, mortar, cement, or any other suitable material, which I pack in as closely as may be thought hecessary. The top of the pile is then to be suitably covered, when it will be ready for use.

In practice the casing may be applied either before or after driving the piles. I have found it practicable and convenient, in applying it recently to a large bridge, to encase the piles before driving them. It might be supposed that the envelope would break and peel ofi", but such was not the case. Not more than one in a hundred of the piles were injured from this cause. The sections may be made in any shape. I have made them both in rings and strips or concave plates, and have experienced no difliculty in attaching them together in either form. The whole tube to be applied to a pile may be cast or moulded in one piece, if desired, but it will be found more convenient to make it in sections, as above described.

This process is particularly valuable for preserving piles from destruction-by water, worms, and insects, which attack the posts of bridges, wharves, 860., in salt water, and which are so exceedingly destructive to'vessels. Against such ravages my process is a perfect protection. The worm is unable to penetrate even the glazing on the surface of the case, where it is properly applied. Many piles protected by me in this manner are now standing in thewater at Galveston,'Iexas,whereI have placed them within the last two years, and have remained perfectly safe and intact, while other timber, unprotected, or protected by the old methods, standing in the same water during the same time, has been honey-combed and rendered worthless by the worms. The process is equally as efiicacious in preserving timber from decay in water as for protecting it from boring-insects. For this purpose I intcnd to cncasc in this manner the sleepers and ties of railroads, telegraph and fence-posts, the sills of buildings, the wooden structures of levees, dams, dikes, and in general timber or wood employed in wet places, where it is liable to become soon decayed by the action of the water.

The materials for thus protecting. timber are everywhere present in abundance, and can be prepared and applied at littleexpeuse of time or money. In the harbor of Havnnu, and in other tropicnl harbors, thedestruction of the piles of wharves and bridges by the wo rm isso great that it has been found advisable even to sheathe them with copper or sheathing metal at a very. heavy expense. I have by actual experiment demonstrated the cost of my improved sheathing to be not over one-fourth of the cost of the metallic sheathing thus employed.

Having thus described my invention, what I elailn as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is'- I claim the woodenpile, timber, or structure A, protected substantially in the manner and for the purposes set forth. I

To the above speeifieation of my improvementl have signed my haml this 17th day of July, 1867.

W; HARROLD SMITH.

Witnesses; V CHAVS.-A.'1?ETTIT, SOLON O. KEMON. 

